Moon's approval rating falls ahead of summit
By Kim Yoo-chul
President Moon Jae-in's approval rating has fallen ahead of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that will take place from September 18 to September 20 in Pyongyang, a weekly poll showed Monday.
According to the Realmeter survey, support for Moon during the second week of September was 53.1 percent, down 0.4 percentage points from a week earlier.
The result was based on a poll of 2,504 voters conducted from September 10 to September 14. It had a 2 percentage points margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level.
Some 41.7 percent disapprove of Moon's job performance, an increase of 1.2 percentage points from a week ago _ 5.2 percent didn't respond.
“Worse-than-expected job data in August, increasing real estate prices and the government's latest announcement to impose tougher taxes on property ownership to rein in owners of high-priced homes may have affected Moon's approval rating,” said an official at the market research firm.
Moon, who is flying to Pyongyang using the West Sea air route, has seen his approval rating slowly fall to below 60 percent for the first time since he took office in May last year, vowing to improve South Korea's relations with North Korea and to push forward with political reform.
Moon's approval rating once reached 83 percent after his first summit with the North's Kim back in April.
In a press briefing at a press center in Dongdaemun, downtown Seoul, presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok said the upcoming summit will mainly cover specific measure to “actually” advance the North's denuclearization talks.
Support for Moon's ruling Democratic Party Korea (DPK) was up 0.1 percentage point over the week to 40.5 percent this week.
The main conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) saw its support increase by 1.4 percentage points to 20.9 percent during the period, while the minor progressive Justice Party earned a 10.4 percent approval score, up 0.5 percentage points, the poll showed.
The minor conservative Bareunmirae Party garnered support of 6.9 percent, and the center-left Party for Democracy and Peace gained support of 2.4 percent, Realmeter said.